Tunisia with midsummer party - and a film from Åland

We spent a week in Tunisia on a press trip organised by the Tunisian Tourist Board. It's been intense and hectic, of course, but also a lot of fun. We tell you about our midsummer celebrations in Tunisia (!) and show a film from beautiful Åland.

A week in Tunisia

Just recently, direct flights started running between Stockholm and Tunis for the first time in many, many years. We were on board the first flight, to tell you about this, along with a bunch of other travel writers and influencers.

Joining the trip was Petra from Pellas Inspiraton, Daniela and Göran from Discovering the Planet, Norwegian Desirée from Desirée Travels as well as Nikolas who runs web TV and Mohammed from the Tunisian Tourist Office.

We became a really good team and had great fun together. It means a lot, because the schedule is usually incredibly tight on press trips with programmes from early morning to late evening, while you are expected to take photos, film, listen, interview, take notes and update on social media. If you are having fun together at the same time, everything becomes so much better!

Right now, a new team is down in Tunisia! Feel free to follow @matochresebloggen.se, @travelsis.se and @fantasydining on Instagram.

Midsummer celebrations in Tunisia

The inaugural flight to Tunisia, with Nouvelair, went over midsummer. Our fantastic tour guide Mohammed, from the Tunisian tourist office in Stockholm, was aware that this could be a bit "tough" for Swedes. He secretly packed some cans of herring and at Arlanda he bought a bottle of O.P. Andersson.

On Midsummer's Eve, he had a wonderful surprise. He arranged for the hotel (the Barceló Concorde Green Park Palace in El Kantaoui, Sousse) set up a midsummer buffet with boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, salmon, onions, cheese and bread. Together with herring and nubbe, it was an outstanding midsummer buffet!

I (Helena) was sick with a stomach bug at the time, so I couldn't join the lunch, but honestly, it warms my heart just to see the pictures.

The best thing about travel writers and bloggers is that they are good at documenting. Oops, is the O.P. Andersson bottle already gone?

Just because the food and nubbins were over, the party wasn't over. Daniela and Göran, who blog from Kristianstad, had brought a Swedish flag ... and soon there was dancing around the "midsummer palm" ...

Stopover in Stockholm

After a fantastic week in Tunisia (more on that soon!) we landed again at Arlanda in Stockholm. Since we had the motorhome in Helsinki, we had booked a flight to Finland, but first we had to spend a night at Arlanda.

We are not so good at planning in advance always (there is so much going on all the time!) so we went to the Radisson Blu Arlanda first when we landed. Then they only had one superior room available, which was way too expensive for us, but luckily the hotel advised us to book online, and then there was a cheaper room available.

Back in Finland

Now we are back in Finland! We have started by exploring Helsinki, where the weather has been completely fantastic. It has become a mix of boat trips, museums, cafes, rooftop bars and more.

We have also met our Finnish travel blogger colleague Veera, from Veera Bianca and @veerabianca on Instagram. Very nice to see you again!

Film from Åland

By the way, Peter has put together a film from our trip to and around Åland. A fantastic destination! You can watch the film here:

Best this week

Best this week? Tunisia of course! We were really excited to continue our exploration in Finland, but that's not the case. was really fun with a slightly more exotic adventure in between!

The week ahead

We are currently in Finland and from Helsinki we will be travelling west along the coast, and then north along the coast. We will alternate discoveries and experiences with quiet working days in the motorhome.

Here at FREEDOMtravel you can expect a bunch of reports on Tunisia (mixed with a few guest articles) before we start writing about Finland.

Did you miss the last Happy Friday? Read the Happy Midsummer! - greetings from Tunisia